It was busy covering the pick-and-pop developing between point guard Chris Paul and forward Danilo Gallinari. But when Paul drove past the screen, he didn’t pass to Gallinari on the perimeter. Instead, he threw a high-arcing lob to the low post.

Noel darted in from the opposite side to pluck the pass out of the sky and slam it through the hoop.

A similar series of events played on a loop throughout the night. Noel made his fifth start of the season in the Thunder’s 120-114 win at Orlando on Wednesday. Just two nights before, Oklahoma City had seen how hard a game could be without Noel or starting center Steven Adams. Against the Magic, Noel announced his return with a bang. More accurately, with six.

“I just keep telling them,” Noel said recently of his alley-oop chemistry with his point guards, “’Throw the ball up. I’m going to go get it.’”

Noel, who finished the night with 14 points, was one of six Thunder players who scored in double figures Wednesday.

Noel has been battling left ankle issued for two weeks. First, he missed six straight games with a left ankle sprain. He returned for two games, in which he played a combined 40 minutes off the bench. But at Houston on Monday, Noel was a late scratch with left ankle soreness.

In that a 112-107 comeback win at Houston, Adams left the game early with a left ankle sprain. The Rockets outscored the Thunder in the paint 64-44.

That wasn’t the case Wednesday. Even without Adams, who remained out with injury, the Thunder matched the Magic’s 54 points in the paint. Noel’s six alley-oops contributed both points and energy.

Less than four minutes after Noel and Paul combined for a third-quarter alley-oop, out of a screen set by Gallinari, OKC ran the same play with the ball in Dennis Schroder’s hands.

Schroder, who led the Thunder in points (31) and assists (9) Wednesday, used a pick by Gallinari to get free and anticipated Noel’s backdoor cut. When Noel caught the lob from Schroder, he added a little extra pizazz. Noel dunked the ball with both hands and lifted both knees before dropping from the rim.

Of Noel’s six alley-oop dunks Wednesday, Schroder assisted two. The other four came off lobs by Paul.

Noel and Schroder had already developed lob chemistry last season. But it didn’t take long for Noel and Paul to get their timing down.

“You saw what C threw me,” Noel said Saturday, after another alley-oop-filled performance. “He’s the only one who’s going to throw it that high with that confidence.”

Paul’s lobs were characteristically lofty again Wednesday. The second looked like it was out of the reach of everyone on the court. But Paul and Noel knew better. Noel reached back over his head to deliver the slam, stretching himself so far that he couldn’t keep his balance when he landed.

That dunk was a part of the Thunder’s 63.4% shooting in the first half. Noel shot 5-of-8 before halftime.

“I think we got a little momentum going into the half,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of Paul and Noel’s alley-oops.

Only one alley-oop attempt failed. The Magic had stormed back in the fourth quarter with a 13-3 run. The Thunder led by one point when Paul threw yet another lob near the rim. But this time, the Magic had Noel covered. Terrance Ross came up with the ball.

OKC has more clutch time experience than any other team. So, calm and collected, Schroder and Paul gave the Thunder the offensive boost to overcome Orlando in the final four minutes.

Ross’ last desperate shot attempt bounced off the rim, and Noel corralled the rebound. The Thunder secured its eighth road win in its past nine games away from home.

Maddie Lee followed an NBA team from Seattle to Oklahoma City, she just took a 10-year detour in between. Lee joined the Oklahoman in October 2018 as a Thunder beat writer, fresh off a stint in Oxford, Miss., where she covered Ole Miss for the...
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